Candle of Hope is an application on which people have been lighting candles and counting ‘candles of hope’ instead of COVID-19 cases.
People all over the world have been taking part in this campaign since it first started. Their mission is to spread positivity and hope and to give people a break from the current situation.
Chaker Khazaal started this campaign and invited people from all countries to participate: “Let’s take a short break from the madness & fear around us, and light a candle of hope. Counting Lit candles by each country instead of only counting COVID-19 cases and deaths.”
Chaker Khazaal is a Palestinian-Canadian reporter, speaker, award-winning author, and regular contributor to major newspapers. He was born in Lebanon and is well known for his Confessions of a War Child trilogy.
Lebanese people and celebrities are participating and tagging each other for the purpose of spreading the message and raising the number of candles in their country.
Lebanese director Nadine Labaki is among the celebrities who joined in. She lit a candle and invited Oprah, Salma Hayek, and actress Glenn Close to do the same and share.
Model Nour Arida, singer Melhem Zain, actress Dalida Khalil, journalists Rima Sadek and Nadia Bsat, among many others, have also taken part.
Even some Lebanese doctors and nurses lit candles and raised the count until it reached 13,915 in Lebanon and 41,951 in the world.
Chaker Khazaal posted two videos that describe the two levels of this campaign.
Level 1 is lighting the candle:
And level 2 is sharing your story:
What is most fascinating about this kind of endeavor we’ve been observing worldwide is how people everywhere have opened their hearts to each other and extended their hands to grab each other, even if virtually.
If there is something good that has come from this pandemic, it’s really the emerging unity of humans. The pandemic that has had no wall to stop its spreading path seems to have also shattered the walls of humans’ divisiveness; at least for now.
It is indeed reminding us that we are one world, one earth, one human race; something we would do well to always remember.
We have a dedicated coronavirus section where you can find the latest news/updates about the pandemic in Lebanon, inform yourself with WHO-verified resources, and track the number of cases in Lebanon in real-time. Click here.
